Several posts on Twitter that League Express are about to break a big story.

Someone from TotalRL wrote:

"Good grief. The lead story in @leagueexpress this week is going to send the game into meltdown. Rugby league fans cannot afford to miss it!"

League Express responded with:

"Plenty of activity on social media regarding our big story in the new paper. All shall be revealed soon, just make sure you don't miss it."

Anyone have any ideas??

Have been wondering when we'd hear anything about McNamara's England future? Could it be he's leaving?

I know not exactly "meltdown" but I doubt whatever the news is that it will cause that exaggerated claim.

bulls force salary cap row!

total over reaction from the headline makers, sounds like the bradford club are either struggling again financially or spitting the dummy out over leighs' spending!

IIRC Bradford pretty much said they couldn't continue spending in 2016 what they were in 2015. I remember it because it put James Lowes petulant and rather childish outburst just after losing the deciding game with Wakefield (I just can't use the term "Million Pound Game", it's horrific) into a bit more context and could maybe see how he'd gone from favouring the system early in the season to being dead set against it, if he'd have to downgrade his squad if they didn't get promoted.

So I wouldn't be suprised if they're now not happy with Leigh being able to spend more when they either can't or aren't willing to match it and keep up.

Newspaper trails story with hyperbole and enigmatic hints - what happened next will amaze you.

Nice bit of speculation but totally wrong

.

Story is actually about Salford and payments to players bradfords only involvement is we asked rhetorically why investigation was dragging on so long.

rfl in a transfer shocker!

another brush under the carpet from red hall?

I was only going off what number 6 said. I do know though Bradford are struggling to spend enough to compete with Leigh, they put a lot of money into last year in the hope of promotion.

Doesn't sound good for Salford though, wasn't Sean Long after them for unpaid wages too?
If what Green alleges in the article is true (that it was discovered at Puletua's tribunal he had 2 contracts) then I agree with him. It needs sorting and quickly. And every signing made by Salford under Koukash needs examining closely and they need a very harshly penalty applied to them including looking at whether any directors or Salford employees need banning from the sport.

At first I thought it was League Express wetting themselves over not much, but when you read it it could be a massive issue for the RFL. Melbourne Mk 2.

I had heard that a player had 2 contracts - one paid by the club and the other paid by another business owned by the club owner. If true and done to break the salary cap I hope the club is hammered and the owner asked to leave the game. Not sure this is the story in the paper as I have not seen it.

it does look like another melbourne scenario, but we know the rfl dont have the balls to follow the nrls' verdict and punishment as it shows them in a poor light too

It's just another over-hyped story to sell a sports newspaper. This kind of stuff does the game no favours...

So it doent say Tony P was paid by 2 sperate organisations?

Question is though, what happens if Salford get a points deduction and didn't make it to 0 before super eights kick in? RFL need to think long and hard how to deal with this situation.

Not if the allegations about 2 contracts are true it's not.
If they're true it's a very big RL story.

They'd be bottom, as per us last year, and have ages to prepare for the middle 8's, which will send Leigh into meltdown. The whole of the Championship will be molten.

Agree.
I doubt the RFL have thought about how the new system would affect points deductions in general. If a club gets a points deduction but still makes the top 8 then it's ok, they still feel the effect of that punishment.

But if a club is unlikely to make the top 8, like Salford, Widnes or Wakefield, then a points deduction has very little effect on them.

Maybe there needs to be a process whereby part of any points deduction is only applied during the 8's. For instance with a 6 point deduction, 4 points could be applied prior to the 8's and 2 points deducted as soon as the 8's start. Or maybe only 1 point if 2 is deemed too harsh.

I'm not sure the waiting around for the middle 8's technique would really work if put into proper practise. Wakefield doesn't count in a way as they made a significant coaching improvement. Had Webster stayed I think they'd have gone down.

I reckon IF their was a points deduction that left Salford no chance of avoiding the Bottom 4 then it would drain the life out of the club and therefore the players and lots of heavy batterings most weeks in SL and I'm sure Koukash would be carrying on left, right and centre, perhaps even walking away from the sport......and I'd struggle to see them being able to then produce some performances when it mattered in the Middle 8's.

Any points deduction is pretty much a waste of time as, no matter what, Salford will be in the "qualification league" at the end of the season.
Even if they were to be relegated, they would still be in the same end of season league.

What are the rules for the alleged salary cap breaches ?

As others have said, most punishments become meaningless for clubs in their position.

The case in question was thrown out of court a while ago. Not sure another RFL investigation is going to find anything different than a law court.

It is perfectly possible for something to be both LEGAL in a court of law, and against the RFL Operational Rules.

No idea whether it is in this case or not, but just because a court has OK'd something, it doesn't mean there isn't a breach of some other rules.

Here we go again some read a couple of paragraphs in a trade paper and become judge,jury and executioner.
Wonder how many bother to follow the transcripts from the two day court hearing before jumping in.

The court hearing was not investigating possible Salary Cap breaches, and if the RFL did have a representative in court it would seem he would have heard enough to justify a SC investigation. The way this man does business is clearly 'unorthodox' otherwise there wouldn't be as many claims against him or the club. There are still at least 3 rumoured to be outstanding against him.

Name the three that are outstanding

The shocking part for me is comparing Salford to Melbourne.

If it turns out that Salford have manipulated the cap, what a futile deception & based on performance a waste of money.

Oooooh that was a defensive challenge.

Hock, Chase and Long